Blockage Detection and Diagnosis of Externally Parallelized Monolithic Microreactors

To realize stable operation of a microchemical system, it is necessary to develop a process monitoring method that can detect and diagnose blocked microreactors. In this study, a system composed of five monolithic microreactors and a split-and-recombine-type flow distributor (SRFD) was developed for Suzuki-Miyaura coupling. Firstly, the effects of operating conditions on the yield was examined by using a single microreactor. After that, an optimal design problem was formulated to maximize the blockage detection performance by adjusting the channel resistances of the SRFD and the sensor locations in the SRFD under the design constraints. To efficiently solve the problem, a pressure drop compartment model, which is analogous to electrical resistance networks, was used. The optimally designed system was experimentally evaluated from the viewpoint of the capability of continuous operation and the blockage detection and diagnosis performance. The evaluation results show that continuous operation was successfully carried out for one hour, and that the artificially generated blockage of each microreactor was accurately identified. The developed system minimized the process performance degradation due to blockage.